Darkness Cometh Tonight
by ShadowByYourSide
Summary: A new guy is introduced into the institute. This is his story.
1. Default Chapter

The night was cold. I walked down the street toward a big building. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. I had heard of this place throughout my journeys. It was a place for people like myself. A place for freaks. They try to hide it by calling themselves mutants. It doesn't matter though. They still won't be accepted. Not by normal people anyway.  
My sunglasses glinted slightly as I passed under a streetlight. I hated having to wear sunglasses. Even at night I had to wear them. That is, unless there weren't any streetlights on. I walked up to the gates and looked at a camera that followed my every move. I saw an intercom on the right side of the gate and pushed the button to talk.  
"Can I come in?" My voice was quiet and ashy. It was like I hadn't had anything to drink in a year. I listened for a response from the intercom. I was half expecting nothing to happen since it was about one or two in the morning.  
"Who is it?" The voice came back soft but powerful.  
"My name is James. James Callard. Can I come in now?" I was getting touchy. My temper was always my biggest liability.  
"Let me check for one second, James." The response was clean and calm. It was like the guy new exactly how to talk to me. I waited a good three seconds before the gates opened.  
"Thanks." I walked through the gates and onto the grounds. I followed a stone path up to the manor. It was an impressive structure. It looked like it could fit a hundred and fifty mack trucks in just the front yard. It was nice.  
I walked up to the huge, wooden front doors. Just as I was about to knock though, they opened and there was a man in a wheel chair looking up at me.  
"Hello James." The man in the wheel chair was the same man that was on the intercom.  
"Hey... I'm sorry for being here this late." I really wasn't sorry at all but I figured I'd try to be nice rather than just walk right in.  
"It's perfectly okay. Come in James. What brings you here all the way from South Carolina?" The man had a small smirk on his face after he spoke. My expression must have been priceless.  
"How did you know where I'm from?" I was completely baffled and at the same time I was not surprised at all.  
"My name is Professor Xavier. I am Headmaster at this institute. I can read your thoughts." He spoke seriously.  
"If you can read my thoughts then I don't need to tell you what brings me here." I was a little perturbed that he would invade my mind the way he did.  
"I'm sorry James. I just like to see what people are like on the inside before trusting them."  
"Don't be sorry. Shit happens. Being sorry about it doesn't help anything." I hated it when people apologized. It really got on my nerves.  
"I can see you've had some problems in your life." He was getting quieter.  
"Reading my mind again?" I looked curiously at him.  
"Not at all. I can tell by the way you hold yourself and the way you talk."  
"Oh." I put down a black duffle bag that I had been carrying with me. I looked around at the room I was in and I was practically in awe.  
"Are you looking to stay here or are you just looking for a room for the night?"  
"I'm undecided right now. But a room doesn't sound half bad." I was wiped out from walking all the way here.  
"I'll get you into one. I'm guessing you want a dark room."  
"Pitch black inside if you can." I picked up my duffle and followed him as he turned around to go into a side room.  
"We can. Trust me."  
"I'm trying. I have some trust issues."  
"I understand completely." He actually sounded as if he did understand.  
"Yeah." I couldn't believe myself. I was having a conversation with this guy and I had just met him. Usually if I didn't know you, I didn't want to know you. This man was different.  
"Your room is going to be upstairs, fifth door on your left. Here's the key and the code to the lock." He handed me a small silver key and a card with some letters and numbers on it.  
"Thanks. Which flight of stairs do I use?" I pointed up toward two sets of stairs.  
"The one on the right. And you room is on the left side of the hallway."  
"Yeah I caught that much. Thanks and goodnight."  
"Goodnight James. Maybe tomorrow you'll have decided whether you're going to stay."  
"Yeah whatever." I carried myself up to the room I was directed to and put in the code. I unlocked the key lock and opened the door.  
As soon as I walked in I could take off my sunglasses. It was pitch black inside and I could see perfectly. My bed was pre-made. There was a dresser with a mirror on top of it. There was even a bathroom. There were no light switches though. That was a good thing. Everything was dark in this room. Even the walls were black. There was no window. But there was a big painting of some guy in a sword fight with a wolf or something.  
I went into the bathroom and started filling the tub. I might as well get a nice bath before going to bed. The water was the perfect temperature as soon as it started coming out of the faucet. I got undressed and stepped into the tub. I sat and soaked for at least an hour just enjoying myself. I got clean and then dried off. I drained the tub and put on a pair of boxers. I walked back into the room and laid on the bed. I covered up and had as best a night's sleep I could. I watched my veins pulsate in my eyelids until I passed out and was unconscious for the rest of the night.  
I didn't dream. I just lay there in a black sleep until I was woken up by the feeling of being watched. I sat up in my bed and I knew it was about ten in the morning but it was still pitch black in my room. The door was open. I had forgotten to shut it. There were a couple of people in the doorway trying to see in. I got dressed and put on my sunglasses. I stood right in front of them and watched them while they tried to see in at the "new guy." One guy had on red sunglasses and there was a girl with white streaks on her bangs. There was a guy with blue fur all over his body. I decided that I would mess with them a little. Nosy people get on my nerves.  
"Boo." I walked out of my room as the jumped back. I closed and locked the door and stood in front of the people.  
"Uhh... Hello." The guy with the sunglasses decided he would speak first.  
"Hi. Do you guys have a problem with new people?" I didn't mean to come off offensive but it was in my nature.  
"What if they do?" I heard a voice behind me and I spun around to see a big hairy guy with long sideburns walking up to join us.  
"Then they do. I was just curious." I looked at this guy and I could tell he had a bad attitude. At least he came off that way.  
"Yeah. What's your name?" It was the girl with the white stripes in her hair.  
"It's James. How about you?" I was calm when I talked to her. I don't know why, I just was.  
"It's Rogue. And this is Scott and Kurt. The one behind you is Logan." She had a slight southern accent.  
"Yeah... Pleased to meet you... or something like that." I turned to walk away.  
"Where are you going?" The fuzzy guy popped out of nowhere in front of my. The smell of sulfur was practically overwhelming. He had a strong German accent.  
"Well I figured I'd get breakfast so I'm not tired all day. Where's the kitchen?" I fixed my sunglasses on my face and had just enough time to blink before he grabbed me and I was in the kitchen.  
"Here we are." He had a grin from ear to ear. It was like he had just won all the candy in the world and he was five years old.  
"Don't ever touch me again without warning me first. You'll lose one of your major extremities." I was a little pissed and paranoid at the same time.  
"Sorry."  
"Don't apologize."  
"Sor... or, okay." He seemed to be freaked out by me. This was fun.  
"That's better." I started to make myself breakfast. I found a steak in the refrigerator and got some eggs to go with it. I got a pan out of one of the cabinets and put it on the stove. I cooked my food and put it on a plate and sat at the table.  
"What's your power?" Kurt was still there. He had watched me make the steak and eggs and never said a word until now.  
"I can cook breakfast." I was being a smart ass. And then I made a fork and knife come out of my shadow on the ground.  
"Oh... nice power. You can make stuff out of shadows." He was a little confused.  
"Out of any kind of darkness. Do you want some of this food?" I cut the steak in half and I had taken too many eggs so I separated some of them from the rest of my meal.  
"Only if you insist." Kurt grabbed a plate and some utensils and sat at the table.  
"I insist." I put the food on his plate and we ate breakfast.  
After breakfast, I cleaned up and put everything away. I had just walked out of the kitchen when a stream of red broke through the wall and clipped my sunglasses from my face. The light hit me eyes and I was blind. 


	2. The True Beginning

"Damnit!" It was the loudest I had been since I got there. I grabbed at my blind eyes with my hands and I fell to my knees.  
"Are you ok?" Kurt ran up behind me and put a hand on my back.  
"Don't touch me. Don't get near me. What the hell was that?" I was officially pissed and at the same time I was confused.  
"I'm willing to bet that was Scott." He looked at the hole in the wall and at my destroyed sunglasses.  
"Some prank. I'm going to kill him." I stood up and stumbled around for a bit.  
"I'm sure it wasn't on purpose." Kurt was ready to catch me if I fell.  
"What is his power?" I'm still not sure why I asked that but it seemed like a good thing to ask at the time.  
"He can blast things with his eyes. That's why he wears those sunglasses."  
"Oh I see. Well... you know what I mean." I started feeling around for my sunglasses and felt them get placed into my hand. Most likely by Kurt.  
"Here you go. They're broken." Kurt backed up after giving me my glasses.  
"I noticed. I can fix them." I held the glasses in my hand and they molded into nothingness. They reformed themselves into sunglasses again and shot to my eyes. I could see again.  
"They were just a shadow?" Kurt was now utterly confused.  
"Yeah. It's the only reason they're strong enough to protect my eyes from the light." I looked at the hole in the wall and stepped back.  
"You'll get used to that kind of stuff."  
"That is... only if I stay." I started walking off. I don't know where I was going.  
"You aren't staying?" Kurt followed closely.  
"I'm undecided."  
"Oh." He stayed quiet after that.  
I walked around the manor with Kurt for a while. I was taking my own little tour of the place. It wasn't half bad. There were some interesting inhabitants here. I noticed Rogue a couple times. We waved to one another.  
"I've been through this whole place and I haven't seen Professor Xavier anywhere." I looked at Kurt curiously.  
"You haven't seen the WHOLE place. Just the upper levels." He had a look on his face that told me he knew a secret.  
"I haven't? What does this book hide beneath its cover?" I love metaphors.  
"I can't tell you unless you're staying." He seemed to be trying to make me stay.  
"Then I guess you can't tell me right now. I haven't decided yet. Mind if I get some time alone now?" I turned away just before he answered.  
I walked blindly through the hallways and corridors of the manor. I explored all the rooms two or three times over. It depended on how much I liked them. I went outside and looked at the grounds again. They were still just as beautiful as when I first showed up. I noticed someone walking around outside. It was Rogue. I sat against the wall and watched her. She caught my attention as soon as I met her. She seemed rather disturbed on the inside. It was like she had everything but couldn't do anything with it. She was my mystery. I would figure her out soon enough.  
She brushed a strand of hair out of her face. It was the most graceful thing I had ever seen. I didn't know exactly what it was that caused her to capture me this way. But I wasn't fighting it. I sat and watched her for a couple of hours until a voice rang inside my head. It was Xavier.  
"Could you come to my office, James?" His voice seemed to echo. I didn't like the echo effect. It made me feel like there was nothing in my head.  
I got up and walked into the manor and looked around. I had no idea where his office was. His voice rang again.  
"From there go down the hallway ahead of you. After that make the third right. Go straight through the doors at the end of the hallway." He didn't contact me again after that.  
I made it into his office and sat in a chair in front of his desk.  
"Try not to mess with my head when you talk to me." I was calm and collected. At the same time though, I felt like I was being called to the principal's office after shooting a spitball at the teacher.  
"I'll try. But only if you get a better attitude about yourself." He seemed like he really needed to talk to me about something.  
"Why am I here?" I fixed myself comfortably in my chair.  
"Are you staying? I need to know James." He looked me in my eye. It was like he could see right through my sunglasses.  
"I... I don't know. Can I have a little time to think about it?" My head dropped and came back up.  
"Yes but make it quick."  
I thought hard. I didn't feel so out of place here. But at the same time, I did. It was one of the weirdest feelings in the world. I thought about what I had been through this whole day. Waking up, eating breakfast, the blast from Scott. Then I thought about Rogue. The way I was about her. I looked up at Xavier.  
"Well, professor. I've made up my mind. I'll stay." I nodded lightly at him.  
"Very well, James. You can go." He waved his hand toward the door.  
"Thank you." 


End file.
